Marc-Michel Rey

Marc- Michel Rey ( born May 5, 1720 in Geneva, † June 8, 1780 in Amsterdam) was a publisher and promoter of the literature of the Enlightenment.

Life and work

Rey was born in Geneva in 1720, the son of French Huguenots. His father was Isaac Rey ( * ca 1695) and his mother, Marguerite du Seigneur ( * ca 1697 ). Own account, he had only a low level of education. He graduated from 1733 to 1744 an apprenticeship with a Geneva bookseller and publisher Marc- Michel Bosquet. Then followed, in 1744, the company moved to Amsterdam where he acquired the civil rights and opened a publishing business. In Amsterdam he was in 1755 the most important publisher of the French Enlightenment. In particular, Rousseau's works (including the Emile and the Nouvelle Héloise ) published in the first edition with him.

Also the system of Nature by Paul Henri Thiry d' Holbach was moved here in 1770, but with Jean -Baptiste de Mirabaud ( 1675-1760 ) as a writer and London as a place of publication on the title page.

On April 24, 1747 married in Buiksloot (Amsterdam ), Elisabeth Bernard, the daughter of the bookseller and publisher Jean Frédéric Bernard.Sie had two children Isaac Rey (* 1748) and Marguerite Jeanne Rey (* 1749).